California Senate Endorses Teaching Gays’ Contributions

The California Senate has approved a bill that would require the state’s social studies curriculum to include contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

Supporters said the policy would help promote greater safety for all children. The measure would also require that school curricula be free of bias on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity. ("Calif. Considers Adding Gays’ Contributions to Textbooks," April 26, 2006.)

“The invisibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in official school materials exacerbates an already hostile school climate in which homophobic bullying, harassment, and violence take place,” Sen. Sheila James Kuehl, a Democrat and the bill’s sponsor, said in a statement.

The measure, SB 1437, passed May 11 on a vote of 23-12, with no Republicans in favor. The measure now goes to the Assembly, the legislature’s lower chamber.